Debora Curry
English Dept - Administrative Assistant
Email: debora.curry@gcccd.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 10am and 2pm to 4pm - email Debora for link for her Zoom Office hours
The following is a timeline of Grossmont College's deans of divisions that have included the English Department. Between 1961 and 1970, a single "Dean of Instruction" served the entire college. After 1970, however, more divisional deaneries were added to accommodate the expansion of the College. Division names underwent periodic changes to include newly created departments and programs, or to include established departments moved from one division into another, which, over the decades, occurred more than once for the English Department. Consequently, in order to avoid confusion, the years listed for each dean below may not be fully inclusive of his or her tenure of deanery service. Rather, they represent only the period during which the English Department was under the leadership of that dean.
"Charles C. (Charlie) Collins, Grossmont's first Dean of Instruction died of a heart attack July 28 while visiting San Luis Obispo from his home in Berkeley. He was 77. Hired by Jack Hansen, G.C.'s first president, Collins did much to shape Grossmont's educational picture his six years here. He earned high praise for his devotion to innovative teaching, along with some criticism for his passion in responding to his beliefs. Active in pushing civil rights, he participated in a sit- in at a downtown San Diego building and was arrested and jailed as a result. The incident drew praise from some at Grossmont, castigation from others. While here, Collins did some teaching along with handling his administrative duties. One class in psychology was mandatory for all first-year students. Collins lectured to large classes in filled Room 220. Students then participated in small- group discussion sessions, with counselors assigned to lead the sessions. Ray Reynolds, who, like Collins, came to Grossmont for its start, and taught English, journalism and mass communication, remembers Collins for his dedication. "He was one of the few who really wanted to raise the intellectual level of students, to take them beyond community college in their thinking," Reynolds recalled. Larry Coons, Dean of Admissions and Guidance when G.C. opened, remembers Collins' arrival at Grossmont, particularly because it was late, and the chore of writing the school's first catalog fell to Hansen, Collins' newly-hired secretary-now Dr. Mildred McAuley-and Coons. Collins arrived in time to help finish the project, having been detained by the Army for which he'd been guidance counselor at schools in Germany. After working with Hansen on the writing project, Collins remarked to Coons that Hansen was a compulsive worker. (Larry Coons suffered a slight stroke in July, However, he's recovered rapidly and is back to riding a bicycle and pursuing his avocation of San Diego area tour guide.) Collins left Grossmont in the summer of 1967 on a leave of absence to go to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, as a Fulbright professor. His mission was to help establish a form of community college, to be called a junior university college. After Ceylon, he accepted a teaching/administrative job at UC Berkeley and did not return to Grossmont. At Berkeley he was Associate Director of the Junior College Leadership Program. From 1968 until 1972, he helped plan Los Medanos College at Pittsburg, California, and when it opened, he went there as Dean of Humanistic Studies until he retired in 1980. Born in Bramen, Oklahoma, Collins grew up in Coalinga, attending elementary school, high school and community college there. He subsequently got bachelor's and master's degrees from Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from Stanford. During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 until 1945." |
Debora Curry
English Dept - Administrative Assistant
Email: debora.curry@gcccd.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 10am and 2pm to 4pm - email Debora for link for her Zoom Office hours
8800 Grossmont College Drive
El Cajon, California 92020
619-644-7000
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